Washington -- A spokesperson for Rep. Pete Stark, an East Bay Democrat, on Tuesday defended Stark's collection of Social Security benefits for his minor children after his Democratic challenger, Eric Swalwell, urged that Congress close the "Rich Kid Loophole" in Social Security.

Stark is 80 and has a reported net worth as high as $27 million. He earns $174,000 a year as a member of the House and has seven children, including three minors. The Chronicle reported Friday that the minor children are receiving Social Security benefits.

Swalwell, 31, took issue with the benefits in a statement late Monday.

"Every person should receive the benefits to which he or she paid into and is entitled," Swalwell said. "But just because it's legal, doesn't make it right. ... Clearly, the situation in the Stark household is not the intended purpose of this benefit and he's diverting government money to his kids."

Children under age 18 may collect benefits if a parent is retired, disabled or deceased and paid taxes into the system.

Stark is not retired, but is entitled to benefits. The Social Security Administration cannot comment on individual cases, but spokesperson Lowell Kepke in the agency's San Francisco office said in an e-mail that if someone is "over full retirement age, which would be 65 for an individual who is now 80, and 66 for current retirees, that individual can work and earn without limit and still collect full retirement benefits."

Swalwell would "close this loophole," said his campaign spokeswoman Lisa Tucker. "If a parent is still working and earning a wage that exceeds the earnings cap under Social Security, then that person should not be able to collect Social Security benefits for minor children."

"The very premise of Social Security is that all Americans pay into it and all Americans benefit from it," Cornu said. "Before young Swalwell opens the door to changes in Social Security that Republicans would love to make, he should have done his homework."

Cornu said in a telephone interview that Swalwell is "calling for means testing," or allocating benefits according to a retiree's income, rather than on how much in taxes a person paid into the system.

Means testing Social Security is controversial because of fears that basing benefits on need would turn the program into welfare and undermine its political support. A spokeswoman for Swalwell said he does not support means testing.

Cornu said she did not know how much Stark's children were receiving. The average for the child of a retiree is $605.

The Social Security Administration estimates that 4.4 million children receive $2.5 billion each month. Only 609,000 children receive benefits because their parents are retired. Most of the rest are deceased or disabled.

Kepke said the agency cannot say how wealthy the retiree families are. The agency states that the benefits are intended to "help to provide the necessities of life for family members and help to make it possible for those children to complete high school."

Social Security experts, liberal and conservative, agreed that Swalwell's proposal would require some form of means testing. They also said families in Stark's position - a wealthy senior with minor children - are rare.